Police strikes in Egypt accelerate, adding turmoil

Egyptians mourn during the funeral for Abd Alhaleem Mohanna, 23, who was killed on March 5, 2013 during clashes with riot police, in Port Said, Egypt, Friday, March 8, 2013. Egypt's police forces have withdrawn from the streets of this restive city on the Suez Canal, handing over security to the military after nearly a week of deadly clashes. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
— AP

Egyptians mourn during the funeral for Abd Alhaleem Mohanna, 23, who was killed on March 5, 2013 during clashes with riot police, in Port Said, Egypt, Friday, March 8, 2013. Egypt's police forces have withdrawn from the streets of this restive city on the Suez Canal, handing over security to the military after nearly a week of deadly clashes. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
/ AP

On Friday, the police announced they were handing over security control in the city to the military.

Islamist allies of Morsi have spoken of the police strikes as an attempt at a "soft coup" against the president - and some were moving to fill the void, a step that could spread to other parts of the country.

Gamaa Islamiya, a powerful hard-line Islamist group, announced Friday its members would take over policing in the southern province of Assiut because the strikes. Skirmishes broke out between liberal protesters and Gamaa members in front of the governor's office.

The Gamaa was one of two main militant groups that waged a bloody campaign of violence in southern Egypt aiming to overthrow the state in the 1990s. Before that, after the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat, the group attacked police stations in Assiut and declared an Islamic state there before their leaders were arrested.

It since forswore violence and entered politics after Mubarak's fall in 2011, but it maintains a hard-line Islamist ideology.

Assiut's top security official, Gen. Aboul-Kassem Deif, said the group's move was illegal. But he seemed to acknowledge he could not stop it.